1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermosensitive recording material.
2. Description of the Related Art
A thermosensitive recording method is advantageous in that (1) development is unnecessary, (2) in a case in which the support is a paper, its paper quality is similar to that of plain paper, (3) handling is easy, (4) color density is high, (5) a recording apparatus is simple and inexpensive, and (6) there is no noise during recording. Accordingly, thermosensitive recording materials are widely used as recording media in facsimiles, automated ticketing machines and scientific measurement devices as well as output media in various printers or plotters for POS labels, CAD, medical images and the like. Among them, a multilayered synthetic paper, a biaxially-stretched thermoplastic resin film optionally containing an inorganic pigment or a transparent support is used in an image printer for medical images, which requires uniformity and high resolution of the recorded images, and in a CAD plotter, which requires dimensionally stable fine-line recording. In particular, slight white deletion, mottling, streaks or the like of the image in image printer paper for medical images may lead to misjudgment in the field of medical treatment, so there is a need for a contrivance which prevents occurrence of image defects.
As a countermeasure against the occurrence of image defects, there is considered an approach which prevents foreign matter, such as dust, from adhering to a support or on a coated surface during production. For example, there has been proposed a method of reducing image defects by designing a coating method or a coating device, even when coarse particles are contained in the coating liquid (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) Nos. 04-101883, 04-244264, and 07-031918). However, such methods use a specific support or require a special apparatus, and the reduction of image defects cannot be said to be satisfactory.